Kyle Luu: the Go-To Dresser For Solange, Travis Scott, Tinashe, Young Thug, and Troye Sivan (2024)

We sat down to discuss how Luu's hard work finally began to pay off, making your own lane in the fashion world, working with Solange on the visual album of the season as well as being a trans woman in the Hip Hop community.

During the most recentNew York Fashion Week, I ran into Kyle Luu. We had both arrived out of theFebruary hellscape for a family dinner in honor of Telfar at The Standard, HighLine. "Phew girl!" Kyle exclaimed, laughing short of breath. She wasn'tinvoking the weather or the shows, her heels, or even the commotion surroundingthe coat check area in which we were standing. We clinked glasses and she toldme about finishing her latest project with Solange. Entitled When I Get Home, the album and visualproject, released this weekend, was the culmination of a half a year ofplanning. "Video content and a bunch of shoots in between," Kyleexplained to me later when we convened for this interview. "The video partalone took four weeks, so that's a lot of time." Shot between Solange'shome turf of Houston, Dallas, and Marfa, TX, the 33-minute art film featuresdirection by Alan Ferguson, Terence Nance, Jacolby Satterwhite, and RayTintori, the album including collaborations with the likes of Gucci Mane, PlayboiCarti, Cassie, Abra, The-Dream, Tyler the Creator, Pharrell, Sampha, andothers.

The project is but thelatest in a series of triumphs for the D.C.-raised, New York-based stylist, whohas made a name for herself as a go-to dresser for pop stars like Travis Scott,Tinashe, Young Thug, and Troye Sivan. She's also attracted the attention ofindustry figures like Carine Roitfeld and Pat McGrath for her disheveled-sexy,genderbending, urban-power-girl aesthetic, which she attributes to growing upin awe of artists like Destiny's Child and Britney Spears.

Were you alwaysinterested in fashion?

I was more interested inart. I originally wanted to be an illustrator and my mom was like "artistsdon't become famous until they die! Are you sure you want to do that?" So,I quickly pivoted to something else that was in the realm. I saw this segmenton Oprah where they were doing DIY projects, and they, like, cut a T-shirt intoa halter top and I was like, "Oh!" That was what really sparked myinterest.

Did you move to New Yorkto go to college?

I didn't get into F.I.T.but I moved here anyway, with an internship. I took classes there anyway butnot full time. I was doing my internship during the day and then going toschool at night. I felt like I had such a random college experience because Iwasn't full time and when I was in school I was surrounded by much olderadults. I was taking weird classes like anatomy classes, a human body coursewhere we had to know all the muscles and bones. I felt like I was in a scienceclass. I failed!

Did you originally wantto be a designer?

I wanted to go into designbut then I realized how expensive and how time consuming it is. I wantedinstant gratification and I felt like styling was the one thing that offeredthat.

So how did you get intostyling?

Do you remember ModelMayhem? A girlfriend of mine was modeling at the time and she was like, "Ineed a stylist to come with me to a shoot, I'm using this website called ModelMayhem." And then it just kind of went from there. I remember Telfar wason Model Mayhem. I remember him delivering samples to my apartment on his bike.This is like 9 or 10 years ago! I then had a friend who was at Elle Magazineand she was like, “I'm leaving and I'm going to take all the contacts and givethem to you.” And I was like, “okay!” But then it really did nothing for mycareer.

When did you begin tofeel a turning point where you realized you were a professional stylist?

I think when I wasyounger and I stepped into a real showroom and got to pull clothes, I was like, “oh, I'm doing big things!” You know?And then it probably went from there to like, getting rates more than $100.When you see the rates and you start seeing better clothing options; it wasthings like that… I never assisted anybody. I never landed jobs that Iinterviewed for growing up. At one point, my mom was like, “let's get real:you're living in a fantasy world and you need to get a job!” So, I ended upworking at Forever 21 in Times Square and we opened the store there, which iskind of insane. That job only lasted 3 or 4 months and then I was like, back tothe fantasy! My mom was using her life savings just for me to survive in NewYork City so it was really crunch time. I said, “give me 3 months, I'll get mysh*t together.” And then I remember... I was actually at the Standard Hotel,and I received a text from one of the heads at SONY. Her name was SamanthaLecca. She booked me for Travis Scott's first video. They flew me out to L.A.two days later and that was it.

Now you've worked withso many musicians. Is music your go-to when it comes to the commercial side ofyour work?

You definitely see coinover there. It's definitely cute when it comes to payouts but it's also a lotmore work than editorial. You're dealing with one personality, which is theartist, and then the teams, music heads, and you have a lot of people to answerto. There are so many different layers when you work with a musician. I thinkthat makes things a little more challenging—too many chefs in the kitchen. It'snot just the managers, it's the entourage; the entourage always hassomething to say!

So, when musicians orlabels come to you, what is it about what you do that they're drawn to?

I think, I'm able tomake them still look like themselves but elevated. A lot of people forget youhave to make artists look and feel like themselves. It always ends up feelinglike a costume. Too conceptual. I think my personal style is a little sexierand that works with musicians. I always have that sexier touch, but I also canstill offer an editorial standpoint.

What would baby Kylethink of grown Kyle working with these artists?

It's so weird becauseevery artist I've worked with has had a unique connection. Tinashe, I literallyprayed on. I knew I needed a girl artist and I thought, “I want to work withTinashe.” Out of the blue, Matthew Henson called me, who I'd never worked withor even talked to before. He was like, "hey I love your work and I think Ihave a client for you." And I was like, "who?" I wasactuallywatching Tinashe on the TV at the time, and he said, "it's Tinashe." Iwas like, “Oh my god, it's so weird.”Even with my friends Jacky and Elvin, we were having dinner on mybirthday and they were like, "who do you want to work with" and I waslike, "someone who could understand me like Solange," and then sheended up calling me 3 days later. It's destiny, it really is.

In your editorial worknow, what have you been working on and where do you see yourself going in thatregard?

Well, I just did CR 14 and a little bit of Interviewwith Remi Lamande, and I did Allure with Lizzo and that should be comingout soon. I have always been that person who's taken odd jobs because they'rethe only jobs that have been offered to me. I'm that person who takeseverything until I don't need to anymore. I come from a place of yes (laughs)but there are ups and downs to it, because sometimes you're on set and you'rekicking yourself in the head like, “why the f*ck did I sign up for this?” But, Imean, as far as my career goes, I think I'll get into a little more creativedirection with artists. I work with artists so much, I feel like I should justuse that as my strong point or jump off. As far as editorial, I'm justcontinuing to put out content with friends and creating new language, which isamazing. I'll just continue to do that, I'll continue to create my own lanebecause I think fashion is so political... You don't ever really get to breakin to certain magazines because they just want to book certain teams together.So, I'm like, then I'll just work with my friends and I'll build those teamsout. It's going to be the next wave. I already know it is. David and Solomon[Torso] have always been so ahead of their time and I'm so happy to see thatthey are finally moving into this commercial realm. Everyone featured in thenew CR has done something so left, for me, and it feels so ahead of whateveryone else is doing that it's like “f*ckyou,” I'm just going to skip what you're doing and work with myfriends! You guys want to be over here and that's fine, we'll play over hereand that's cool. People are seeing it and maybe they won't understand it now,but slowly and surely people are going to start understanding it. You seepeople like Heji [Shin], she's going big things now. People are slowly catchingon. I'm at a point also where I'm not going to go around sucking dicks just foreditorials. You know what I'm saying? I'm just not that bitch. I'm not thatpressed.

Tell me about the newproject with Solange ("When I Get Home")

It was such a whirlwind.We worked on it over the span of half a year. She does everything very on herown time and that's great because it's better to take your time with things.It's very mom-and-pop shop over there, she has a very small team. It's greatbecause we have more of a voice. Your voice is more heard because the team issmaller and it means opinions do matter. So, we worked on the video for fourweeks throughout Houston, Dallas, and Marfa. We spent most of our time inMarfa. We did everything from costume design to pulls, to on-the-spotcut-and-sew. We were also dressing hundreds of extras at the same time. You'llsee in the video, it's like hundreds of extras at a time. That was fun, it wasreally challenging, though, because we were in the desert so we would have tounload... I think it was 42 racks of clothes.

Solange is very specificwith her inspirations. What were some of your inspirations that you were ableto really get across in the project?

This project was theperfect time for me to go and pull archives—things that I would see as a childand go, "oh my god how does that even work? Is that real? Where does it goafter it's done?" So, we got to go and play with the Mugler archives, alot of Iris Van Herpen, Viktor & Rolf sent a lot of their archive. Thingsyou would see in magazines, you're getting to finally see it in person. It wascrazy. They would ship these huge crates and it looked like a museum the entiretime. All of our pulls looked like we were getting ready to set up some fashionexhibition—some Met Gala installation—which is amazing but also really scary atthe same time because, you know, here is this archive Mugler, and you're like, “ifthis falls on the floor... I don't know, I don't even know what to do.” We worewhite gloves too. I'm like, “I wear NARS and it's not that sheer! No makeup.”But the video was fun, we got to play with archives and custom stuff, so allthat stuff was really fun too.

That will be a big deal!I'm sure you'll be getting a lot of calls…

I hope so! Because I'mready for some f*cking bitches to put some respect on my motherf*cking name.

What has your experiencebeen like being an openly trans artist working in hip hop and in fashion?

It's not thatsignificant to my story. I'm just living as is. I just show up to set and I'mlike, "hey boo!" Sometimes it's like, "surprise!"They'relike, “oh, Kyle?" They're thrown off.

Was transitioning in and of itself impactful in terms of how you would style other women?

I think my feminine energy has a lot to do with how I style. And I think maybe what's interesting is that such a feminine presence can be in the same room as someone like Travis Scott, who I worked with for four years. And, yes, that is interesting and it's not talked about too much. It should be talked about! Because people go into those spaces with a preconceived notion that maybe they might be judged or have a harder time. Working with Travis was cool; he completely supported me. It was sort of midway through my transitioning, and he never questioned it, he didn't really care, it was not even really a thing.

I think there is the perception that hip-hop is rife with phobias. But urban communities have always had trans girls.

Yeah, or you think that it's so aggressive. But it's okay. Everyone has, you know, at least an uncle that's gay, everyone knows someone that's dippin' it and doin' it, you know? So, it's not a shocker. But the thing that really made me respect Travis is that Travis has actually had to tell people in my presence to shut the f*ck up, and he's told people that they need to put some respect on it. He's actually stood up for me before, multiple times. So, when the Amanda Lepore controversy happened, I knew, it's not even like that.

Culture at large has taken so much from the trans community. You look at theParis Is Burningthing and how far that culture has gone. Cardi B and the Kardashians are expressing in a particular way and we know where it originated. Do you feel a responsibility to represent in that way?

Now I see guys, rappers wearing pearl earrings, I'm like, “okay sis, I see you!” In terms of representation, I don't even think about it. I think it just shows in the work. I don't think I need to make an announcement. Everyone has their own way of representing and I just represent by putting out quality work.